The patch below, which appeared briefly in 2.1.117 and was backed out in2.1.118, allows the linux NFS client to handle named pipes residing onnon-linux NFSv2 servers. It has no other impact, and has been tested hereagainst a linux unfsd server and a solaris 2.5.1 server.

Details: the NFSv2 protocol has no provisions for handling named pipes,and therefore they are encoded as character devices with major/minor = -1.Linux uses a non-standard extention of the protocol, which is incompatiblewith other servers - already existing pipes will appear as characterdevices, and trying to create new ones will result in plain files. Thepatch corrects this behavior, and also avoids breaking unfsd (which usesthe same non-standard extention) by retrying the operation in the oldstyle if the new style fails.

Thanks,Ion

-- It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.---------------------- v2.1.120/linux/fs/nfs/dir.c Wed Jun 24 22:54:09 1998+++ linux/fs/nfs/dir.c Wed Aug 19 16:16:04 1998@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ * Following Linus comments on my original hack, this version * depends only on the dcache stuff and doesn't touch the inode * layer (iput() and friends).+ * 04 Aug 1998 Ion Badulescu <ionut@cs.columbia.edu> + * FIFO's need special handling in NFSv2 */